This invention relates to photo-induced killing of cancer cells.
Photodynamic cancer therapy involves photosensitizing cancer cells with a compound and then killing the cells by exposing them to light, e.g., laser light. Oseroff et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,739, for example, describes killing cancer cells by treating the cells with a cationic, lipophilic dye that is taken up and preferentially retained in the mitochondria of the cancer cells, and then exposing the cells to light.